1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a master station apparatus in a supervisory and control system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a master station apparatus for remotely supervising the status of devices to be controlled included in each of several substations, such as a power plant, a substation and the like, in a power system, for example, and for remotely controlling the selected device as necessary.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A master station apparatus in a supervisory and control system comprises a supervisory panel for always and remotely supervising status of devices included in a substation and a control panel for selectively and remotely controlling any of these devices, for example, in an on or off manner. Conventionally, it is usual that such an optimum supervisory panel and control panel for the master station apparatus is manufactured for each system according to the kind and the size of the system to be supervised and controlled. Recently, as a general-purpose video display apparatus using a cathode-ray tube has been put into practice, the supervisory panel has been able to be structured by using a fixed hardware structure common to any system. More particularly, recently, an indication has come to be made in a free and optimum fashion according to a type and/or a size of the system, using a general-purpose video display 1 as shown in FIG. 1. However, most of control panels or consoles are of a type made on order for each system, as conventional.
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing an example of a conventional console which is a background of the present invention. The conventional control panel or console 3 comprises a substation selecting switch 31, a device selecting switch 32, a number switch 33, a control switch 34 and a reset switch 35. The substation selecting switch 31 includes a plurality of switches corresponding to the respective substations, indicating the names of the substations, respectively, such as north, south, east, west and the like. For example, if the switch "EAST" is depressed, the east substation as shown in FIG. 1 is selected. The device selecting switch 32 includes a plurality of switches for selecting devices, for example, receiving power:R, primary:P, secondary:S, bus tie:T and feeder:F. The number switch 33 includes ten key switches of from "0" to "9" and is used for designating a device number. For example, if the F key included in the device selecting switch 32 is depressed and then the key indicating the numeral 7 included in the number switch 33 is actuated, the seventh feeder, that is, F7, indicated in a skeleton diagram as shown in FIG. 1 is designated. After such selection of a device the feeder F7 is remotely controlled and is rendered ON by depressing the ON switch in the switch 34.
As described in the foregoing, since a substation selecting switch 31 and a device selecting switch 32 are provided in the conventional console, it has been necessary to alter the contents and the number of these selecting switches according to the change of a system structure. Accordingly, it is difficult to utilize such console commonly to any supervisory and control system, without changing the hardware structure. As a result, it is necessary to manufacture individually an optimum console for each system and thus an increase of the cost cannot be avoided.
Over against this, it can be considered that alphameric keys are provided in a console and any substation and any device can be selected by such key operation, so that a general-purpose console may be obtained. However, in such a console designating a substation and a device number by a combination of such alphameric keys, a further problem will be encountered. More particularly, in order to designate a specific device in a specific substation by selectively operating a number of alphameric keys, such an operation takes many steps and thus becomes troublesome. In addition, there is danger that a serious accident will arise in a whole system. More specifically, although an accident may arise when a selection of an erroneous device is made and an erroneous control is made to the erroneously selected device, a possibility of causing such an erroneous operation becomes extremely high in such selectively combined operations of the alphameric keys. It comes to be contrary to the basic requirement of such kind of console which main object is to prevent erroneous selection of a device and erroneous control and thus is not preferred. In the case where a breaker and a disconnecting switch in a certain substation of a power system, for example, are checked, it is necessary to make a lock for security in order to disable the operation of the device. However, in a console containing the above described alphameric keys, there is a problem that it is difficult to confirm, with ease, the operation of such lock for security and the result of the operation.
Meanwhile, one example of a supervisory and control system structuring a supervisory panel using a general-purpose video display apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 is represented by the book entitled "Transmission & Distribution" by John T. Tyner, pages 23 to 56, published May, 1980, for example.